I noted the story in NBR yesterday about Selwyn Pellet’s business being sold to some Americans.

Another tech company that has received millions in government grants seems set to fall into overseas ownership.

California-based, NYSE-listed Emulex has made a ¬£80.7 million ($NZ156) cash offer to takeover Endace, the network security company founded by entrepreneur Selwyn Pellett (who resigned from the board in 2010 and sold most of his shares at the same time).

…

Endace – which was born out of research at Waikato University – has received more than¬†$11 million¬†in direct government grants, and the move is sure to reignite debate over no-strings-attached taxpayer handouts.

Shearer has repeated¬†Cunliffe’s out of left field policy¬†to give Ministers the right of veto over private business transactions, like the proposed takeover of Fisher & Paykel by Haier.

This is absolutely startling policy.

What sort of signal would this send to the rest of the world?

This is economic policy by opinion poll.

God knows what sort of impact this would have on our Free Trade Agreements, let alone the impact on householders who’ve invested money in Kiwi companies on the sharemarket. ¬†The premium on their investment could be destroyed with the stroke of a Ministerial pen.

Of course Labour’s also promised to subsidise unprofitable jobs like those at KiwiRail and Solid Energy, while the Greens want to keep the jobs at Solid Energy but leave the coal in the ground.

These policies alone demonstrate Labour and their Green buddies are not fit to govern.

Fisher and Paykel is a private company with shareholders who’ve exercised their choice to invest, in the hope that those shares will increase in value. ¬†If they can sell at a profit to Haier, then that is the way it works.

“The Government cannot stand aside and watch New Zealand manufacturing ripped out from New Zealand ownership,” said Labour finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.

Presumably David Cunliffe advocates for Fisher & Paykel to become a SOE. Once again though we see Labour complaining about Chinese investment but not other company buy outs. I didn’t hear them calling for the government to buy up Navman (oh that’s right, they were the government in 2004), or Selwyn Pellet’s company when he sold that to offshore investors, or Trademe when sold to Australians…for some reason Labour only ever complains when Chinese are involved.